SAFTU appalled at child labour report
29 March 2018
The South African Federation of Trade Unions is appalled at the shocking report by Statistics SA that 577 000 children in South Africa, some as young as seven, are being used for child labour.
The report, released on 28 March 2018, on the State of Children aged between seven and 17 years old, said children aren’t only used for labour but are also deprived of basic rights such as education and proper health; 2.2 million of South African children are also orphaned.
This provides further evidence that South African society is losing the most basic moral and humanitarian values. What could be worse than profiteering from the exploitation of the most vulnerable members of our society and condemning them to survive into adulthood without proper healthcare and education, which will condemn most of them to years of unemployment and ill-heath.
Most infringements of children’s rights were found in rural areas, and Stats SA says that “declines were recorded for all population groups, except among the white population group, where a slight increase of 0.3% was experienced.